Maddie is living her best second life on a 40-acre sheep farm in rural Wisconsin. In addition to her passion for training sheepdogs--including her spirited border collie Jack--she sees all manner of dogs with behavioral problems ranging from biting to thunder phobia as part of her local practice. No stranger to trauma herself, Maddie has worked hard to recover from the ordeal of her previous marriage.

But things take a turn when Maddie's friend and mentor, George, is inexplicably killed by a rifle shot fired from the woods during a sheepdog trial. Maddie is devastated and also baffled--it's not hunting season, and who could mistake a man, standing alone in a field, for a deer?

She's still reeling from George's shooting when a shelter calls her for help with a German shepherd found half dead beside the highway who's too aggressive to feed and care for. The dog flourishes at the farm, but when Maddie returns one day to find her house invaded, it's clear that she has stumbled into a situation far more complex and sinister than she realized. And her romantic involvement with an enigmatic young shelter worker soon leads to even more trouble. As Maddie continues to search for answers to George's death, it quickly becomes apparent that her own life is once again in danger . . .